The Center for Bioengineering represents a multidisciplinary research involving faculty and students from all the departments of engineering engaged in collaborative research with health scientists from many medical and dental disciplines. Teams of investigators have been mobilized and organized to attack more than seventy projects of mutual interest ranging from the most basic "bioengineering science" problems to instrumentation and clinical engineering applied directly to patients. In accordance with carefully conceived plans, these individual collaborative research efforts have now been organized into eight groups, with common research objectives and facilities requirements budgets and responsible investigator. This major effort has been built upon a small central management, accounting, purchasing, central shop and inventory control. The success of this effort is attributable in part to a few basic policies: (a) The Center supports existing department programs and does not dilute or compete with them, (b) The participants must have clear professional benefits from the program, (c) The engineers and life scientists must work as equal partners, (d) The future of biomedical research resides at the interface between disciplines. The Center for Bioengineering also serves as an interface between the University and the community, nurturing interaction with extramural medical research laboratories, not-for-profit research and development laboratories, local industry, medical centers and the community at large. By these means a comprehensive effort is directed toward transferring the fruits of biomedical engineering research and development to the health care delivery system.